NFHS-6 indicators not omitted: Health Ministry

Union Health Ministry sources said the indicators claimed to have been “omitted” in the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-6 Fact Sheets are being monitored through dedicated national surveys and administrative databases, and therefore were not duplicated in the preliminary release.

This comes after criticism by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who questioned the exclusion of certain key health and nutrition indicators from the recently released NFHS-6 Fact Sheets and alleged that the data reflected shortcomings in the Government’s healthcare and nutrition policies. Senior officials in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said the fact sheets represent only the first stage of dissemination and cover 101 major indicators intended to provide a concise snapshot of India’s most critical health and demographic trends.

“The fact sheets are the first stage of dissemination. The detailed national report will provide a much broader picture,” they said. It will be released subsequently with a much wider range of indicators, detailed analyses and methodological documentation, they added.

Responding to concerns over the absence of some indicators, officials said the objective was to improve coherence across India’s expanding statistical ecosystem. “The objective is to ensure that each indicator is reported through the most appropriate and authoritative source, reducing duplication and improving overall data coherence,” an official source said.

Officials noted that several indicators cited as missing from the fact sheets are already being monitored through dedicated national systems. Sanitation and clean cooking fuel coverage, for instance, are tracked through specialised surveys and administrative platforms such as Swachh Survekshan Grameen and surveys conducted by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, making duplication within the fact sheets unnecessary they said.

Similarly, key statistics relating to mortality, birth registration and population characteristics continue to be generated through established systems such as the Sample Registration System (SRS), Civil Registration System (CRS) and Census framework, which remain the country’s designated sources for these indicators.

Officials also addressed questions regarding the absence of anaemia estimates in the fact sheets.

They explained that haemoglobin testing was not undertaken in NFHS-6 due to concerns surrounding the capillary blood sampling methodology used in previous rounds.

Instead, anaemia prevalence estimates will be derived from the Indian Council of Medical Research’s Diet and Biomarkers Survey, which employs gold-standard venous blood sampling methods to improve accuracy and reliability.

According to officials, the decision reflects an effort to strengthen the quality of health data rather than reduce the survey’s scope.

Far from narrowing the survey’s coverage, NFHS-6 has introduced several new indicators into the fact sheets, including population composition, elderly population share, financial inclusion, antenatal care utilisation, vaccination coverage, severe diarrhoeal disease prevalence and expanded breastfeeding indicators.

Officials also clarified that several indicators not reflected in the fact sheets have not been dropped and will be presented in greater detail in the full national report.

These include granular family planning indicators, selected child health interventions, further aspects related to women’s health and HIV-related findings.

They said that NFHS remains India’s largest and most comprehensive household health survey and continues to serve as a cornerstone for evidence-based policymaking.

The final national report is currently being prepared in consultation with technical experts, relevant ministries and development partners before its release, officials said.

The NFHS questionnaire undergoes periodic refinement to reflect emerging policy priorities while maintaining survey quality and reducing respondent burden, a practice commonly followed by major household surveys worldwide, the health ministry sources said.

The evolution of the NFHS reporting framework reflects the growing maturity of India’s statistical architecture, where multiple specialised surveys and administrative databases increasingly complement one another to provide a more comprehensive, accurate and policy relevant picture of the country’s development journey,” they said.

Kharge on Thursday claimed that the “absolute incompetence”of the BJP has been “unmasked” by the NFHS-6 data and alleged that the Modi government has betrayed India’s women and children on healthcare and nutrition.

Kharge said the BJP has a five-step formula to hide its “sins”.

He accused the BJP of burying selected data, abandoning the vulnerable, advertising “Sabka Saath” and “Amrit Kaal”, manipulating the narrative and protecting “Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s PR at all costs”.

“Not only does the Modi government betray India’s women and children on healthcare and nutrition, but it also deliberately hides crucial data which exposes its failures!” Kharge said on X.

Union Health Minister J P Nadda hit back at Kharge on Saturday, saying “half-knowledge is dangerous” and asserting that the latest data reflects significant improvements in India’s healthcare indicators under the Modi government.

Nadda accused the Congress president of selectively reading the survey findings for political purposes.